Decision
Does patient meet clinical eligibility criteria for thrombectomy in the 6- to 24- hour window?
No → Admit to stroke unit or ICU
Background
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Evidence-based medicine requires a critical appraisal of the literature based upon study methodology and number of subjects. Not all references are equally robust. The findings of a large, prospective, random-ized, and blinded trial should carry more weight than a case report.
To help the reader judge the strength of each reference, pertinent information about the study is included in bold type following the ref-erence, where available. In addition, the most informative references cited in this paper, as determined by the authors, are noted by an asterisk (*) next to the number of the reference.
- Benjamin EJ, Muntner P, Alonso A, et al. Heart disease and stroke statistics-2019 update: a report from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2019;139(10):e56-e528. (Statistical report)
- Carandang R, Seshadri S, Beiser A, et al. Trends in incidence, lifetime risk, severity, and 30-day mortality of stroke over the past 50 years. JAMA. 2006;296(24):2939-2946. (Prospective study; 9152 patients)
- Ovbiagele B, Goldstein LB, Higashida RT, et al. Forecasting the future of stroke in the United States: a policy statement from the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association. Stroke. 2013;44(8):2361-2375. (Cost-projection assessment)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke rt-PA Stroke Study Group. Tissue plasminogen activator for acute ischemic stroke. N Engl J Med. 1995;333(24):1581-1587. (Randomized double-blind trial; 624 patients) DOI: 10.1056/NEJM199512143332401
- Berkhemer OA, Fransen PS, Beumer D, et al. A randomized trial of intraarterial treatment for acute ischemic stroke. N Engl J Med. 2015;372(1):11-20. (Randomized trial; 500 patients) DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1411587
- Saver JL, Goyal M, Bonafe A, et al. Stent-retriever thrombectomy after intravenous t-PA vs. t-PA alone in stroke. N Engl J Med. 2015;372(24):2285-2295. (Randomized controlled trial; 196 patients)
- Campbell BC, Mitchell PJ, Kleinig TJ, et al. Endovascular therapy for ischemic stroke with perfusion-imaging selection. N Engl J Med. 2015;372(11):1009-1018. (Randomized controlled trial; 70 patients)
- Goyal M, Demchuk AM, Menon BK, et al. Randomized assessment of rapid endovascular treatment of ischemic stroke. N Engl J Med. 2015;372(11):1019-1030. (Randomized controlled trial; 238 patients)
- Bracard S, Ducrocq X, Mas JL, et al. Mechanical thrombectomy after intravenous alteplase versus alteplase alone after stroke (THRACE): a randomised controlled trial. Lancet Neurol. 2016;15(11):1138-1147. (Randomized controlled trial; 414 patients)
- Albers GW, Marks MP, Kemp S, et al. Thrombectomy for stroke at 6 to 16 hours with selec-tion by perfusion imaging. N Engl J Med. 2018;378(8):708-718. (Multicenter, randomized, open-label trial, with blinded outcome assessment; 182 patients, 92 to the endovascular-therapy group and 90 to the medical-therapy group).) DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1713973
- Nogueira RG, Jadhav AP, Haussen DC, et al. Thrombectomy 6 to 24 hours after stroke with a mismatch between deficit and infarct. N Engl J Med. 2018;378(1):11-21. (Randomized controlled trial; 206 patients) DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1706442
- Emberson J, Lees KR, Lyden P, et al. Effect of treatment delay, age, and stroke severity on the effects of intravenous thrombolysis with alteplase for acute ischaemic stroke: a meta-analysis of individual patient data from randomised trials. Lancet. 2014;384(9958):1929-1935. (Review)
- Saver JL, Goyal M, van der Lugt A, et al. Time to treatment with endovascular thrombectomy and outcomes from ischemic stroke: a meta-analysis. JAMA. 2016;316(12):1279-1288. (Meta-analysis; 5 trials, 1287 patients)
- Powers WJ, Rabinstein AA, Ackerson T, et al. 2018 guidelines for the early management of patients with acute ischemic stroke: a guideline for healthcare professionals from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. Stroke. 2018;49(3):e46-e110. (Guidelines)
- Powers WJ, Rabinstein AA, Ackerson T, et al. Guidelines for the early management of patients with acute ischemic stroke: 2019 update to the 2018 guidelines for the early management of acute ischemic stroke: a guideline for healthcare professionals from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. Stroke. 2019;50(12):e344-e418. (Guidelines) DOI: 10.1161/STR.0000000000000211
- Demaerschalk BM, Kleindorfer DO, Adeoye OM, et al. Scientific Rationale for the Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria for Intravenous Alteplase in Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Statement for Healthcare Professionals From the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. Stroke. 2016;47(2):581-641. (Review)
- Schaefer PW, Roccatagliata L, Ledezma C, et al. First-pass quantitative CT perfusion identifies thresholds for salvageable penumbra in acute stroke patients treated with intra-arterial therapy. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2006;27(1):20-25. (Prospective study; 14 patients)
- Campbell BC, Christensen S, Levi CR, et al. Cerebral blood flow is the optimal CT perfusion parameter for assessing infarct core. Stroke. 2011;42(12):3435-3440. (Retrospective analysis; 54 patients)
- Olivot JM, Mlynash M, Thijs VN, et al. Optimal Tmax threshold for predicting penumbral tissue in acute stroke. Stroke. 2009;40(2):469-475. (Multicenter study; 33 patients)
- Broderick JP, Adeoye O, Elm J. Evolution of the modified Rankin Scale and its use in future stroke trials. Stroke. 2017;48(7):2007-2012. (Review)
- Hacke W, Donnan G, Fieschi C, et al. Association of outcome with early stroke treatment: pooled analysis of ATLANTIS, ECASS, and NINDS rt-PA stroke trials. Lancet. 2004;363(9411):768-774. (Meta-analysis; 6 randomized placebo-controlled trials)
- Wardlaw JM, Murray V, Berge E, et al. Recombinant tissue plasminogen activator for acute ischaemic stroke: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet. 2012;379(9834):2364-2372. (Systematic review and meta-analysis; 12 trials)
- Wardlaw JM, Murray V, Berge E, et al. Thrombolysis for acute ischaemic stroke. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2014(7):CD000213. (Systematic review)
- Hacke W, Kaste M, Bluhmki E, et al. Thrombolysis with alteplase 3 to 4.5 hours after acute ischemic stroke. N Engl J Med. 2008;359(13):1317-1329. (Randomized double-blind trial; 821 patients) DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa0804656
- Thomalla G, Simonsen CZ, Boutitie F, et al. MRI-guided thrombolysis for stroke with unknown time of onset. N Engl J Med. 2018;379(7):611-622. (Multicenter randomized controlled trial; 503 patients) DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1804355
- Lin CB, Peterson ED, Smith EE, et al. Emergency medical service hospital prenotification is associated with improved evaluation and treatment of acute ischemic stroke. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2012;5(4):514-522. (Multivariate analysis; 371,988 patients)
- Roffe C, Nevatte T, Sim J, et al. Effect of routine low-dose oxygen supplementation on death and disability in adults with acute stroke: the stroke oxygen study randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 2017;318(12):1125-1135. (Single-blind randomized clinical trial; 8003 patients)
- Josephson SA, Hills NK, Johnston SC. NIH Stroke Scale reliability in ratings from a large sample of clinicians. Cerebrovasc Dis. 2006;22(5-6):389-395. (Comparative study; 11 patients)
- Lyden P, Raman R, Liu L, et al. National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale certification is reliable across multiple venues. Stroke. 2009;40(7):2507-2511. (Inter-rater reliability assessment)
- Mazya M, Egido JA, Ford GA, et al. Predicting the risk of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage in ischemic stroke treated with intravenous alteplase: safe Implementation of Treatments in Stroke (SITS) symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage risk score. Stroke. 2012;43(6):1524-1531. (Registry analysis; 31,627 patients)
- Butcher K, Christensen S, Parsons M, et al. Postthrombolysis blood pressure elevation is associated with hemorrhagic transformation. Stroke. 2010;41(1):72-77. (Randomized controlled trial; 97 patients)
- Stead LG, Gilmore RM, Decker WW, et al. Initial emergency department blood pressure as predictor of survival after acute ischemic stroke. Neurology. 2005;65(8):1179-1183. (Observational study; 357 patients)
- Alper BS, Foster G, Thabane L, et al. Thrombolysis with alteplase 3 – 4.5 hours after acute ischemic stroke: trial reanalysis adjusted for baseline imbalances. BMJ Evid Based Med. 2020;25(5):168-171. (Reanalysis of randomized placebo-controlled trial; 821 patients)
- Cronin CA, Sheth KN, Zhao X, et al. Adherence to Third European Cooperative Acute Stroke Study 3- to 4.5-hour exclusions and association with outcome: data from Get with the Guidelines-Stroke. Stroke. 2014;45(9):2745-2749. (Data analysis; 32,019 patients)
- Kidwell CS, Chalela JA, Saver JL, et al. Comparison of MRI and CT for detection of acute intracerebral hemorrhage. JAMA. 2004;292(15):1823-1830. (Prospective multicenter study; 200 patients)
- Fiebach JB, Schellinger PD, Gass A, et al. Stroke magnetic resonance imaging is accurate in hyperacute intracerebral hemorrhage: a multicenter study on the validity of stroke imaging. Stroke. 2004;35(2):502-506. (Prospective multicenter trial; 124 patients)
- The NINDS t-PA Stroke Study Group. Intracerebral hemorrhage after intravenous t-PA therapy for ischemic stroke. Stroke. 1997;28(11):2109-2118. (Subgroup analyses of data from a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial; 312 patients)
- Patel SC, Levine SR, Tilley BC, et al. Lack of clinical significance of early ischemic changes on computed tomography in acute stroke. JAMA. 2001;286(22):2830-2838. (Re-evaluation of randomized controlled trial; 624 patients)
- Turk AS 3rd, Siddiqui A, Fifi JT, et al. Aspiration thrombectomy versus stent retriever thrombectomy as first-line approach for large vessel occlusion (COMPASS): a multicentre, randomised, open label, blinded outcome, non-inferiority trial. Lancet. 2019;393(10175):998-1008. (Multicenter randomized open-label blinded outcome noninferiority trial; 15 sites, 270 patients)
- Lapergue B, Blanc R, Gory B, et al. Effect of endovascular contact aspiration vs stent retriever on revascularization in patients with acute ischemic stroke and large vessel occlusion: the ASTER randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 2017;318(5):443-452. (Randomized controlled open-label blinded end-point trial; 381 patients )
- Goyal M, Menon BK, van Zwam WH, et al. Endovascular thrombectomy after large-vessel ischaemic stroke: a meta-analysis of individual patient data from five randomised trials. Lancet. 2016;387(10029):1723-1731. (Meta-analysis; 5 trials, 1287 patients)
- Rimmele DL, Thomalla G. Wake-up stroke: clinical characteristics, imaging findings, and treatment option - an update. Front Neurol. 2014;5:35. (Review)
- Thomalla G, Rossbach P, Rosenkranz M, et al. Negative fluid-attenuated inversion recovery imaging identifies acute ischemic stroke at 3 hours or less. Ann Neurol. 2009;65(6):724-732. (Comparative study; 120 patients)
- Thomalla G, Cheng B, Ebinger M, et al. DWI-FLAIR mismatch for the identification of patients with acute ischaemic stroke within 4.5 h of symptom onset (PRE-FLAIR): a multicentre observational study. Lancet Neurol. 2011;10(11):978-986. (Multicenter observational study; 543 patients)
- Aoki J, Kimura K, Iguchi Y, et al. FLAIR can estimate the onset time in acute ischemic stroke patients. J Neurol Sci. 2010;293(1-2):39-44. (Retrospective study; 333 patients, 389 MRI studies)
Meets criteria for thrombectomy 6-24 hours